Loyal

Album: X (2013)
Charted: 10 9
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Songfacts®:

  • Three versions of this promotional single for Chris Brown's X album were recorded. All of them feature Lil Wayne, but The East Coast version features French Montana as well, whilst Too Short jumps on the West Coast version and Tyga on the Video version. It was the latter, which was promoted to mainstream radio in America.
  • The song finds Brown addressing gold-digging and money-chasing women who attach themselves to famous names but have no intention of staying loyal to them. It's been reported that his lyrics include a dig at his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna's promiscuous behavior:

    "She wanna do drugs (drugs) smoke weed, get drunk (wasted)
    She wanna see a nigga trapped
    She wanna f--k all the rappers (uh-huh)."

    Brown has previous for slamming Rihanna in a song. In October 2013 Breezy released his unheard verse for DJ Khaled's 'I'm Still' track, which featured him putting down the "Diamonds" singer.
  • The song's music video was directed by Brown himself and finds the singer showing off his adept footwork at Universal City Walk in Los Angeles. Lil Wayne and Tyga appear in the clip as well as Ty Dolla $ign, who co-wrote the song, plus Trey Songz and Usher.
  • Too Short first appeared on the Hot 100 dated November 17, 1990, when "The Ghetto" debuted on its way to a #42 peak. This was the Oakland rapper's first Top 10 hit - a gap of 23 years, five months and two weeks from his initial chart entry.

    According to Billboard, Too Short came up just, er, short of the longest wait from a debut Hot 100 appearance for a first Top 10 hit. "Weird Al" Yankovic needed just one week longer from his debut Hot 100 entry, 1983's "Ricky," until his first Top Tenner, 2006's #9 hit "White & Nerdy."
  • Ty Dolla Sign originally wrote the song for a mutual friend of his and Chris Brown, Bobby Brackins. He let Brown have the tune after the "Love More" singer had recorded his own version.
  • The song finds the singer boasting about stealing other men's girlfriends, before chastising them for being unfaithful. "This one woman came up to me and was like, 'Me and my girl was thinking you could lighten up on your lyrics,'" Ty admitted to Fader magazine. "At first I started to get a little bothered, but then I was like, you know what? F--k that. If you don't understand it, then it's not for you, know what I'm saying? It's party music."
  • This proved to be a hit with prison guards during Brown's time in jail in 2014. "[They were] playing it over the speakers when I was locked up,' he told MTV News. 'You know how they'd call you like, 'Brown you've got a visitor' - they would play the music and I thought: this is funny."

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